Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey has already stepped up and raised a red flag about the legislation. / File / The Tennessean

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Teaching a fourth-grader multiplication tables is a tad more complicated than emptying the classroom’s wastebasket.

The over simplified argument that those two tasks are similar is one of the arguments charter school lobbyists are using to try to convince the state legislature that charter schools should be allowed to be profit-making businesses, not nonprofits run by boards as they are now.

This is a bad bill.

House Education Committee chairman Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, uses that argument to make the case to allow for-profit charter schools: It’s no different, he said, than a school board or other government entity hiring a private firm to provide custodial staff.

Sorry, but that just isn’t a convincing analogy. Tennessee has 69 charter schools, with more applying every day. Their students’ test scores are generally higher than in traditional public schools. Charters are public schools, funded by the per-pupil amount allocated by state and local government.

But they are run by private boards and can create their own systems that differ from the school district. Charters, for example, can have longer school days. Their curriculum is generally focused not just on pushing every student to graduate from high school, but also in the ability of every school child to enter and succeed in college. Parents flock to charters because they have all the advantages of private school without the high tuition cost.

If this bill passes, Tennessee will be in the business of paying for what essentially becomes private schools.

Very few states allow for-profit charter schools. Tennessee has one contracted school that is paid for with tax dollars but makes a profit for its owners. It’s an online school with a dismal track record. Its kids are failing. Their scores are awful. This bill would take that mistake and multiply it statewide.

The legislation would also result in diluting the power of local school boards. There would be less accountability. Right now, failing charters can be closed by school boards. It’s unclear what would happen if a for-profit charter school’s scores were below par. Would the company that owns it want to lose their investment?

And the for-profit charter owner would be tempted to push profits up anywhere they could. Would they hire less talented teachers at bargain salaries to save money and increase their profit margin? Scrimp on classroom materials? Undermine the unique programs that make charters so attractive?

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey has already stepped up and raised a red flag about this legislation. That’s a critical stand that will help lawmakers ignore the lobbyists that have flooded Legislative Plaza, sent from various out-of-state charter school companies to sway votes. The companies make millions off public schools in a handful of states.

“Your No. 1 priority ought to be to provide an education when you’re running a school, and your second priority ought to be to make a profit,” Ramsey said. “If that’s reversed, then we’ve got a little problem.”

Our economy is built on for-profit businesses, on capitalism, and that’s a good and valuable system. But we shouldn’t allow companies to make a buck on the backs of Tennessee’s public school kids.